Martin Luther

Martin Luther drives the Protestant Reformation from Wittenberg, authoring attacks on papal indulgences and Catholic sacraments that split Christendom. A former Augustinian monk turned theology professor at the University of Wittenberg, he forges ties with German princes to protect his movement from imperial and papal reprisal. His doctrines of justification by faith alone and rejection of transubstantiation mark him as the era's chief heretic in conservative eyes, his writings a rallying cry for evangelicals and a specter for traditionalists.